♪ >> the fda takes hefty action on obesity proposing to phase out all trans-fats. the move could prevent 20,000

heart attacks and 7,000 death as year. consider this while lives will be saved almost 600,000 americans die every year from heart disease. so is this just a band aid on a far larger problem? also the mind-blowing sport that requires a lot of courage and not much gear. this is free solo climbing, scaling a mountain without a rope to us non-climbers. the best free soloist in the world will tell us what it's like to climb a mound with nothing but your bear hands and some chalk. and roman polanski made a film with racing legend sir jackie stewart when they were both in their prime. why did it not see the light of day in america. we're joined with story. i'm antonio mora. we begin with your health and the fda. most people know artificial trans fats apparently eye are dodg partially hydrogenathydrogenated

for you. now the fda could see trans fats effectively banned from the american diet. it raises levels of bad cholesterol and lowers levels of good cholesterol increasing the risk of a heart attack. they have no known health benefit or safety limit. to understand the significance of the fda's proposal i'm delighted to be joined by founder and president of the preventive medicine research institute, clinical professor of medicine at university o univerf california san francisco, and author of books, "the spectrum." dean, great to have you with us. what did you think when you heard this announcement? how big of a problem are trans fats in the american diet? >> well, i was delighted to hear the announcement because as you say there is nothing good that they do, and there are a lot of bad things that they do. ten years ago i worked with the ceo of mcdonald's to get

trans fats out of mcdonald's french fries, chickens and fried oveother things that they had. they said, gosh, it will change the flavor, blah-blah-blah, but they did it. and we did the same with pepsico, they own fre frito lay, and that was ten years ago. it's taken time and i think trans fats are the one thing that all experts agree on. they really are bad. and there is no reason for them to be in the diet. now that we know that, i'm delighted that thousands of lives may be saved by what the fda did. >> now there has been a lot of progress because of efforts like yours. according to the fda eliminating trans fats would eliminate 7,000 deaths from heart disease every year. but we have 600,000 deaths in america every year from heart

disease, 7,000 while still important, it's only around 1%. >> well, for those 7,000 people i'm sure pretty important. >> it's a big deal, sure, i think that's an under estimation any way. you don't need trans fats. they were developed to increase the shelf life of products. there is an economic benefit to the people who make them because they can keep their products on the shelves longer. but while they increase the shelf life of the product, it decreases the shelf life of those who consume them. they increase chronic inflammation , which is substation for many forms of cancer. >> and people have been eating a lot fewer trans fats since the fda required that they be included on food level, and americans consumed 4.5 grams of trans-fat back in 2003 but that

dropped to only 1 grama year last year. and so the question is is the fda late to the party with this proposal. >> well, better late than never. i have admiration for dr. peggy hamburg, and there is a lot of money at stake. there is a lot of pressure that they're getting from food manufacturers saying hey wait a minute, we don't want to do that. but i'm glad they are because it can make a big difference. the reasons trans-fat levels have dropped because companies have stopped using them in their products. and a lot of other manufacturers have followed their lead. i think that's a good thing. is that the end all and be all? of course not. is there nor that can be done? of course there is. but it's a good start. >> they had this about the fda's move on al jazeera. >> most food manufacturers and most restaurant have already gotten rid of trans fats.

that's the good news. now these oils are available, and they don't cost more so it will be very easy for other businesses and food manufacturers to make the change as well. >> so you said that-- >> that may be true, but that may be true, and i would like to think that it's true but don't under estimate the power of industry to push back. >> is there an issue of cost, dean? as you said earlier it does ex-enextend the shelf life of products. >> well, that's the cost. if they have to replace the food more frequently because it goes bad faster it will cost them more. but that's to the advantage of the consumer. if you have to cheese between the profits of the industry and even the survival of thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or perhaps even more than that of people, i think that the fda really made the right choice here. >> and the reality is that there are strands fats and a lot of popular foods, crackers, cooki

cookies, frozen pies, all sorts of other baked goods. microwave popcorn, frozen pizza. the list goes on and on and on. people need to avoid these if they can. well, it's true. even the labels are a good start. if you have less than a graham of trans-fat per serving but if you're eating four or five servings of crackers, you can get a significant amount of trans fats without realizing it. banning it makes a lot of he sense. to put this in context heart disease is still the leading killer but we don't need to wait for a new break through we need to put into practice what we already know. our studies show if you simply change your diet. if you move towards a plant based diet, it's not like we need a new break through that we need to put in practice what we already know and this is a good start in that regard. >> we appreciate your perspective on this today. >> thanks, you, too, thanks. >> switching gears from the fda

to the fbi. on october 1st fbi shut down a black market website called silk road, a place where could you anonymously buy drugs, and launder cash, and it did a billion dollars in business, and incredibly the website is back up and running under a new administrator. can anything be done to stop these sites were opening up and doing their illegal business in plain site? here to talk about this from san francisco is eva, global policy analyst with the electronic front tear foundation and skip, coo and president of nourse payments expert on online payments and written about the limitations of law enforcement in fighting cybercrime. after all the effort we reported on this a month ago, the fbi went through to find the kingpin of this operation and shut down the website.

not only is it back up and running but many of its competitors benefited from this site going down. is it futile request. >> no, i don't think it is. it is very difficult given the circumstances that the law enforcement agency versus to deal with. they're bound by adherence to the proper criminal codes, and then the proceeds of that are do they have the level of information that rises to a proof beyond a reasonable doubt which is in the court systems. those are not futile gestures, but it does take more effort on the other side of that, which is more preventive issues to see if we can't stop some of this stuff going on on the internet. rather than playing wachamo. criminals are using in an effort

to owe aggravated the law we need to makes your activities pretty much untraceable. these are legal technologies that have unval uses. there are a lot of legitimate uses which allows people to engage in censorship around the world and communicate anonymously online. and this can be used for legitimate purposes as well as

for purposes of committing committing crimes. there is simply no way to make it so that it only works if you have good intentions. >> the bit coin, a currency of choice on these black market website. they can be anonymously. they only exist in the digital realm. how much is a factor of bit coin? is that something that should be outlawed?

>> according to the administration they incorporated tighter security measures. in their announcement, they said welcome back to freedom. we have overalle had a security overhaul. they're snub their nose at the fbi. de facing the notice that had been placed on the silk road site that the fbi put up when they took the site down. do you think this online market was safer than it was before? >> i think it's difficult to tell. indeed, if i was a criminal interested in using the online black market i would b. fbi has a long history of subverting these websites and using them as honey pots to find and track criminals. >> and we're talking about a huge amount of money. more than a billion dollars

seems to have--at least allegedly went through silk road. the guy who ran it, and has been arrest ed. they found $15 billion of bit coin on his computer. it's like the drug business outside of the internet is it going to be very hard to stop? >> yeah, i think it may be without the ability to actually get inside in a legal manner and monitor and view what the transactional activity is at that level, which is very difficult to do, and absolutely correct, it is a very complex system that is very difficult to defeat, and it does have its moments for non-criminal activity. and should not be blocked. however, if it's identified there are opportunities to at least circumvent the use of it.

i know the ecommerce environment when we see a tour exit transaction, we advise the merchant that it's sending us transaction of what's going on and it's up to their discretion whether they accept the transaction or not but yeah, it's going to be as bad as the street stuff. >> what can be done? >> i don't think there is a whole lot that you can do in the way of technical fixes. this is not a big difference between cybercrime and crime off of the internet. these are simply new ways of committing old crimes. >> eva, skip, appreciate you both joining us. it's a fascinating story. >> every morning from 5 to 9am al jazeera america brings you more us and global news than any

other american news channel. find out what happened and what to expect. >> start every morning, every day, 5am to 9 eastern with al jazeera america. and to contact the centers and the

bullying and hazing for too long

have been considered a rite of passage. but now a bullying scandal that puts the entire culture of the nfl league into question. with bullying can the informal one of the most masculine competitive environments in the world continue to ignore the hazing culture in the locker room and the bullying culture it fosters. we go to dr. harry edwards, sports consultant to the san francisco 49ers and from maryland, dave ziron, host of edge of sports radio and author of game over. great to have you guys both with us tonight. dr. edwards, jonathan martin was hazed as a rookie. he was forced to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for teammates meals and vacations.

he was given the nickname of big weirdo. typical hazing that happens in the nfl that i think people like you guys are aware of the nfl knew about, but this went far further. they went to physical threats, voice mails and text messages involving racial statements leading to an emotional break down. how relevant is this in the nfl, and in sports in particular. >> i've been associated with the informal for the last 30 years. i was in with the golden state warriors for ten years, and i had a lot of dealings with team in the nba. i was with major league baseball for five years and then in all of these sports there is some degree of this kind of thing that goes on. this is an extreme case, but it typically runs a spectrum from having people saying the school songs of the colleges that they came from right up through this, and even worse upon occasion. the thing that has changed is that the technology has

eliminated the in-house locker room de portment behavior and so forth and public information. today nobody can be assured that what happens in-house is going to remain in-house. not even the nsa or the cia much less a locker room in the nfl. so what we're witnessing now is a c change in terms of the cultural--the risk of exposure for an institution that has been long embedded in a kind of secrecy. what happens in the locker room, what happens in the building stays in the building. that's no longer possible. >> besides the publicity that social media can provide, we're talking more than singing the school songs. we're talking about hair cuts , a mohawk that looked like a penis,

we're talking about rookies made to pay 10s of thousands of dollars to veterans for trips to vegas and thousands of dollars for dinner. >> there is no question that that's over the line. but the line is different in almost every locker room. what the public sees on sunday is the sausage. they would not like, i don't think, to see the sausage being made. the kinds of things, the challenges of becoming a professional football player, the practice, the drudgery, the hard work, the injuries, all of that is part of what happens in terms of developing an nfl-level product. sometimes these kinds of backstage activities that are geared to generate camaraderie, that are geared to generate a kind of team spirit and so forth can go over the line. and almost every locker room that i have known anything

about, that line has been--has been different. and so i think the league will have to crackdown and eliminate all of that kind of activity, because it does nothing for the image where they're already struggling with the brain injuries and so forth. the exposure risk involved in that is going to cause the league to eliminate all of it right down to singing the old college anthem. >> dave, i guess my question is should there be a line at call? should there be no room whatsoever? if you think about it, can you think of any other profession where any kind of behavior is acceptable? we have a new young man who started working on the show this week. there is no hazing here. it's just not something that would happen in any other profession. >> well, i think that's one of the main lines of argument is that the national football league, it is a

big-time multi billion dollar business. the workers in the national football league, aka the players, are unionized fork worse. they're part of afl/cio. is this a works place or is this a place of camaraderie building, that's something that the nfl will have to answer for itself going forward. a lot of people with this miami dolphin story has made comparisons to the film "a few good men" ordering the code red and doing a top down vertically organized bullying to take a soft player and turn him into a man's man just like a few good men. it's worth pointing out that the marines have had an uniform code banning yo all hazing since 199. the nfl does not have anything in its rule book whatsoever that

as an uniform code of conduct that has to do with hazing people which just goes to the way that far too often in the nfl it can resemble an adolescent's idea of what war is actually like where players calling themselves soldiers and quarterbacks as field generals as this is the way you build this war mentality in the locker room when other people like jonathan martin is saying, wait a minute, i just signed up to play football, not practice war. something that dr. edwards said that is absolutely true. because i've been interviewing players all week about this, it's different in every locker room. and because the players have these contracts which are not guaranteed, i mean, you're really on this team at the pleasure of the coach and the general manager. if the coach says this is not going to happen, then it's not going to happen. and in some locker rooms it doesn't happen. but when the coach goes like this, hey, go toughen up the players, richie, then it's going to happen.

>> talking about that vertical hierarchy the coaches had told, reportedly told richie incould g incognitoto toughen up martin. some went as far as blaming jonathan martin for letting himself being bullied. this was on cbs sports radio. >> richie incognito, absolutely, but i think the other guy is just as much to blame because he allowed it to happen. you're a grown man. you need to stand up for yourself. >> dr. edwards so many players defending incognito . is martin going to be hurt more than incognito in the long run. >> these players are so ensconced and rooted in 20th century locker room culture they can't even see the steam role, the technological steamroller after it has crushed them flat. the day is gone that you can assume that anything that

happens in a locker room is not going to be open to public scrutiny. it's interesting that dave brought up the movie because there is a movie that i think is applicable here "the violent men." where glenn ford tells his antagonist played by another great actor edward g. robinson don't force me to fight because you're not going to like the way i fight. what this individual did, what mr. martin did was fight in the 21st century way. he had the electronic e-mails. he had the voice mails and so forth which he simply accumulated. i'm quite certain that both mr. incognito as well as the dolphins organization and the league would have preferred that he fought him, fought ric richin the 20th century fashion, hit him in the mouth. stand up for himself. but he didn't do that. he fought in the 21st century away.

he got all of the electronic materials, all the e-mails, which really stands for evidence mails, put all of those mails and put those in public view. that's the reality that we're dealing with. these guys were talking about, well, he should have stood up for himself. he should have fought him. he should have drew a line. they're so ensconced in 20th century culture that they can't see the technological team roller that has crushed them flat and is barreling down the road. this is what the national football league is going to have to deal with. we can't manage and control these electronic technologies so therefore we must eliminate the risk that they generate for us. >> and what about the nfl being ensconced in its own traditions, incognito has a well documented behavioral problems. in college he was ejected from a game. he withdrew from one team and was kicked off another. as a pro he has been fined five times for fighting.

he's--there have been lit hates, yelling at refs. he regularly appears on the nfl's dirtiest player list which voted on by players. there has been a bunch of altercations on the field. i could go on and on and on. why is the nfl blind to these behaviors, and what does this mean for professional football as they keep getting black eye after black eye after the concussion scandal that was mentioned earlier. >> we should point out warren sapp said yesterday that richie incognito would call him the "n" word during games as well. and that was video as well that is out there of richie incognito throwing that word around. that was one of the things that jonathan martin was respond to go, that he was called a half n-word. his resumé of malfeasance. he was on the dolphin team

leadership council which is an intermediary body of players to relate between the coaches and the players. so once again let's remember, this is verticalcally organized, and nothing is done without the knowledge of the coaches themselves. so what are nfl teams going to put up with? what would they put up with? when i grew up, you know who was on my wall growing up? a man named lawrence taylor. i walked around new york with a 56 jersey. if i my mom had known one- 1/50 of what lawrence taylor was doing, i would have had to have taken pose posters down. >> you just pick 53 guys. i will absolutelybly guarantee you given the environments that they came from, that the 53 guys in that locker room are going to be a better set of guys in a

sense of being disciplined, having goals, wanting things that they want to achieve, with all of the other baggage and problems that they bring to this environment, you're not going to find anybody in the nfl in a locker room who is going to pass the mother teresa character test. you're going to find guys who have all the problems of people who come from those kinds of backgrounds and it's the job of the organization and league to manage those problems. >> that's the important--that's the important point that has to be made. the teams appreciate you discussing this with us. >> google edwards, he has an important history. >> it's great to have him on the show. thank you both. time to see what is trending o . >> a high school in california is at the center of a budding controversial. they called themselves the

coachella valley valley arabs. their school looks like a page out of arabian knights. it's been this way for decades without notable complaints. but last friday the america american-arab anti-discrimination committee wrote a letter to the school and called the mascot harmful and de meaning to the arab community. on wednesday they started an online petition. when i asked why they were taking action now, they told me that once we were initially notified about this issue we ran it by dozens of individuals in our community to find out if we should take action. the overwhelming majority of individuals in our community thought it was offensive. we asked you if you think coachella valley's mascot is offensive, and an overwhimming 93% of you said yes.

it is offensive and unacceptable. on the website, another says isn't the school celebrating as much as possible anything from the arab culture? isn't that supposed to be a good thing? you can read this story and more at the website,

>> what if an elite filmmaker and a-list athlete teamed up in their prime to make a film, and it never saw the light of day in the u.s.? not long after his masterpiece "chinatown," roman polanski followed jackie steward as the racing legend prepped for and raced in the monaco grand prix. the result, owe weekend of a champion." it takes to you the glamorous and grueling races . [♪ music ] >> monte carlo should be driven smoothly and quietly.

♪ >> we are pleased to welcome that racing legend sir jackie steward and we welcome the filmmaker, his films including the "rush hour" trilogy have grossed millions of dollars, and highways been hard at work on hercules, which stars the rock. you have jackie stewart who is world famous and roman polanski and it's never seen in the united states? >> amazing. it was 1971 when they made this film. it made one theater in paris and a few theaters in germany. and roman gets a film 40 years later from the lab saying we're going to throw away the

negative. he said send it over here. he gets caught up on it, and calls sir jackie and says, jackie, let's go back to monaco and film more footage 40 years later, and, i see the film, and i'm like, this film has to see the light of day. it is a pastor piec masterpiece. >> what was it like for to you look at this thing and look at yourself in a lot of detail. there are a lot of intimate conversations with polanski more than 40 years ago. >> but roman was a great friend. he had been a great friend before it started. i met him in l.a. originally. we became close friend. when he came back to see more about it again, i think this is a great idea, but i didn't realize he was going to reshoot a lot of stuff. then of course--and make you work. >> and 40 years later the two of us together in the same suite in

the hotel, that itself is a nice thing. but it's an exciting and glamorous circuit, and it was his idea. roman decided he would do it. then 40 years later he has polished it up, gotten it into high definition, and there we are being seen as two people much older talking about then and now. >> what was it like for you to watch yourself then and now. >> i've seen that a few times. there has been a lot of film on all of our motor racing careers. >> you did have longer sideburns. >> the longer the sideburn the faster you went. >> brett, there have been major advancements in fill technology and all that, but the reality it would be impossible to shoot this film in monte carlo because of all sorts of restrictions. >> first of all, because it was roman polanski, that's the only reason why roman had the access because of who he was, because

the director he was and the friendship he had with jackie. jackie allowed him in his world. there would be no way a director would be literally on the track the way he filmed this was literally--i mean-- >> it must have been dangerous for the filmmakers. >> he was one of the filmmakers. roman did as much on camera there himself behind the camera as anybody else. but it was the access from which princess grace with the automobile club i to allow thiso take place. >> once your helmet goes down your helmet visor goes down you sort of go into another world. let's listen to what you say. >> it's like a guy being given an injection. you know, all the pain and everything disappears. you've been given an ant

antiseptic, and you lose pain to what you want to do, what you want to get out of that racing car. and every so often the anesthetic wears off, and you see the cold, hard, horrible world that you're involved in. you see things that you don't want to see so you quickly want to have another shot to get back into the comfort, the warmth of your own escape. >> so some how it sounds like the ultimate athletic zone that you managed to disappear in that world. but it was a world that was extremely dangerous back then. almost one in three people would die during a formula racing career. >> yes, if you raised for five years at that time, two out of three were going to die. one out of three were going to live. most of my friends were wiped out. i lost almost all of my friends.

at that time my wife and i counted 57 drivers who were no longer with us. that changed. i had a lot to do with the change of safety within motor sport. and today we were speaking out, it's been more than 19 years that we lost a grand prix driver in a racing car, which is pretty remarkable. >> and the film shows horrible crashes. one particular incident where with they blew up in the pit. >> bandini, a wonderful italian, and the car just exploded. >> and the death of a young driver is what drove you to stop racing? >> no, it wasn't that. i just burned out. part of that movie that roman made that you're putting out now, i had mononucleo usis at that time. i was working racing in canada

formulas. it was a different racing world back in those days. most racers don't do that number. >> maybe it was glamorous in those days. polanski in the height of his power did a cinema documentary on the racing. >> he had a passion for the sport. he had a passion for his friendship with jackie. to him jackie stewart was the coolest man in the world, and i'm sure that jackie thought roman was very cool. it was that synergy that allowed the film to get made. if it wasn't for that friendship the film would never have seen the light of day. >> how do you think you would have fared today if you raced today. what do you think about the guys today if the how would they fark in your day. >> i think the animal stays the same. i don't think i'm any different . >> is the animal the same?

largely because of your efforts and those of others, it is much safer now than it was back then. that has to make a big difference when you get in a car and you decide how fast you're going to go. >> sure, but like in any sport you're focused in your own little world. you don't think it's going to happen to yourself. you think it happens to other people. but in my particular case i never drew blood from my body in a racing car. i always drove the best cars with the dress people, and the best mechanics and best engineers. it was horribly dangerous at that time. there was no de formable structures. the car crashed, and the impact came in. >> the racers had not been as close to death as jackie was. every month in one season five of his friends, clothes close friend, but now they're not really hanging out together. he lost five friends in one season.

>> why do you think formula one success in the united states has been so hit and miss, especially with the huge popularity of nascar and indy cars? >> that's a good question. the bottom line there are no american race drivers. america is quite domestic when it thinks about its stars. when mario andretti was racing that was a big issue because he won the championship. we don't have one american driver in formula grand prix racing. the american drivers seldom go out of america. i would love to see jeff gordon in formula one. he would have been a superstar in my opinion. so without those stars it's hard to get the americans-- >> no, you can't get the americans-- >> it's like heavy weight boxing. without ali, it's not the same. without tyson.

>> but still certainly still very exciting to watch. the movie is terrific, and it's great to have you both here. best of luck with the movie. i hope it does well >> start with one issue education... gun control... the gap between rich and poor... job creation... climate change... tax cuts... the economy... iran... healthcare... it goes on and on... ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story theses are strait forward conversations, no agenda, just hard hitting debate on the issues that matter to you ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on al jazeera america

>> the queen of talk's yard sale was far from the garden variety event that you would see in your neighborhood. she unloaded her favorite things from her homes in hawai'i and california. the yard sale in santa barbara have by our count fetched more than $750,000 for her girl's academy in south africa.

there were good deals, and on the other hand this chair got a bid for $1,100 six times its estimated worth. and this signed but unframed tv guide cover print of oprah was estimated to be worth $200 but sold for $3,000. for a picture you can get unframed for free. her autograph must have made a difference. and oprah is not the only celeb to hold a yard sale. pamela anderson and teri hatcher has held a yard sell with all profits going to charity. and tori spelling held a yard sell with all proceeds to go to--tori spelling. how big is the garage sale business nationwide? solid numbers are tough to find

because most people are not keeping track and reporting how much they made to the irs but the statistic brain research center estimated 165,000 americans hold sales every week. they figured americans sell horror than 4.9 million items most for much less than a dollar, an estimated weekly sale reached 4.2 million. with those numbers even if the yard sales only took place may through september there would be an $84 million business. big business but not necessarily smart business. if the garage sale items were sold on ebay they could fetch an estimated four times more. we'll be back with more of "consider this." >> al jazeera america is the only news channel that brings you live news at the top of every hour. >> here are the headlines at this hour. >> only on al jazeera america.

>> audiences are intelligent and they know that their

>> what's it like to scale a mountain with nothing separating you from certain death but some chalk and a lot of courage? alex is widely considered the best free soloist in the world.

that means no ropes, no safety harness. no real gear other than chalk to keep his fingers dry to scale the wall. he's 5'11", 160 pounds but he has reached heights like no one else before. he's featured on the december issue of our outside" magazine. we're pleased to be joined by alex from san francisco. jimmy chin is also with us, an "national geographic" photographer who has captured alex's feats. he is the first american to ski down everest from the summit. i think i'm safe saying we've never had anybody as brave or as crazy as you guys on our show. it's great to have you both with us. alex, watching films of you climbing are literally breathtaking. it's impossible not to get nervous watching it. how do you manage the adrenaline if i have trouble managing it

just watching you? >> honestly it's not so much adrenaline involved. by the time i get into that kind of situation, i've put a lot of preparation. i mean, i climb those things because i want to. >> yeah, you actually said it's easy not to be scared if you know you're not going to fall. but how do you feel so confident despite all that training. i know you've been doing this since you were a little kid for hours and hours every day practice all kinds of situations. but you face all these variables when you're up there. not only just basically a 90-degree or worse than that, a mountain that you're climbing, you've got wind, rocks that can fall, crumbling sides of the mountain. you even had a mouse in the middle of a climb. how do you deal with all that? >> there are conditions that you experience when you're climbing with a rope. because i'm climbing every day with normal partners with ropes, i've experienced that full range

of conditions on a daily basis so i'm prepare for that kind of thing when they happen without a rope. you just go climbing a lot, and you get used to that kind of stuff. >> jimmy, you go up there and do you have ropes on when you're filming, and you're filming this guy who has nothing . are you scared watching him? >> there are moments, but i've worked with alex a good amount, and i have a lot of faith in his ability. >> now how do you get up on the wall with your gear? >> it depends on the shoot but often times i'm working with a few different riggos, and i'm spending time climbing where alex is climbing, so i have some familiarity, and a lot of times you have to have that familiarity in order to plan for a shoot. >> but it must be tough having to carry even if you do have the ropes and other equipment you're carrying a lot of stuff with

those cameras. >> yeah, i am. it's kind of like alex says, you kind of habituate to the things that you do, and you carry--i'm very used to carrying a lot of camera equipment. >> alex, i know you're looking at expanding your horizons. you're looking at one of the tallest buildings in the world soon, and you're looking to have a tv show around it. what goes into the decision of what tower to climb? >> i evaluate urban climbing objectives the same way i evaluate my climbing. >> i want to ask a chicken and its egg question. are you filming these guys

because they're going to the extremes or are some of these guys like alex going to the extremes because you're filming them? >> i think it depends. it could be both. it could be either, i should say. ultimately , i think that what alex does is really inspiring, and you know, they're not like normal athletes that we think about when you can watch them in a stadium or on a court and have a lot of people be able to watch the human potential, and a big part of that is what i'm inspired to capture and share with people. >> it really seems like alex goes well beyond what would seem humanly possible. we've got a social media question. let's go to hermela aragawi. >> how do you get health insurance and do you have life insurance? >> i do not have life insurance, and my health insurance is just

bear bones like super cheap. i've never used it. >> it would sound to me like an obsession with climbing might be the ultimate pre-existing condition, alex. >> yeah, it might be. >> now how much--i know i have heard you say you would train for three hours a day, six days a week since you were a child. what kind of training do you do? >> it's not fair to call it training. as a kid i just called it playing. i would just climb things and it was just fun. it was fun to swing around on holds. >> now you go up mountains that nobody has climbed and the way you climb, how do you prepare? you climb with ropes first? >> yes, so i know the exact line and exact conditions. not always but for the most part i prepare like that beforehand. >> strength preparation? >> my day-to-day life is going climbing so i always have a

pretty good measure of my own fitness. >> what is the relationship between the climber and the photographer when you're in these dangerous situations when you're thousands of feet up these mountains? >> well, there certainly needs to be a strong level of trust. as a photographer and filmmaker you don't want to be a liability. and so i think the athlete has to also trust the photographer and the filmmaker as well. having a background in climbing you kind of know where their head is at, what they need, and what might get in the way. >> alex, you have reached new heights, no pun intended, but you've gotten major sponsors. you have a lot of fame. you've been on "60 minutes," but you still mostly live out of a van throughout the year. why? >> with i live out of the van when i'm in the u.s. when i'm traveling overseas i camp or stay wherever. but the van allows a lot of flexibility, an important part

of climb something going to the rocks. that changes with the weather. so you have to stay mobile. >> just stay mobile. alex is considered the best free soloist in the world, and nobody is close. is he an unique situation? >> yes, i would say so. >> pretty simple answer. >> yes. >> alex, why do you think this will take you? how long do you think you can continue to do this, and really risk your life as often as you do? >> well, i mean, i would say that i'm not really risking my life on this kind of thing. i don't climb anything that i feel like i'm gambling on. i only do things that i'm comfortable with. i suppose i'll continue to do it until i feel uncomfortable. not motivated over whatever in how do your parents feel about it? >> they've been surprisingly supportive. they trust me to make decisions, use good judgment and follow my passion.

>> it's an incredible passion, and it's incredible to watch what both of you do. i encourage people to look you guys up and see more images of what you've done because it really is phenomenal, and i hope you keep us posted on what building you do climb. alex, jimmy, we appreciate you coming on the show. stay safe out there. >> thanks for having us. >> the show may be over but the conversation continues on our website at www.aljazeera.co www.aljazeera.com/consider this. or on our facebook or google plus pages you can find us on twitter at aj consider this. on tuesday, excess drink something no longer limited to men. and wednesday, does america have the wrong idea when it comes to healthcare, spending more actually getting us less? we'll see you next time

this is al jazerra. ♪ ♪ hello, welcome to another news hour from al jazerra's head quarters in doha and london, i am adrian finnegan. the top stories around the world right now. entire towns destroyed, people desperate for food and water. aid agencies struggle to reach survivors of typhoon haiyan. >> all of a sudden the water started going up, before we knew it we were by the ceiling clinging for our lives. >> also ahead, empty streets and heavy security in